Trip Notes: This trip turned out to be my most fanatical of them all. At the last minute, I took Friday off to meet T in Ohio for the Blue Jackets game. Flying into OH was far from cheap so I decided to use my free Frontier flight to fly into Indianapolis and make the 3 hr drive to Columbus. I knew I would be cutting it close on time, but I had no idea it would be as close as 20 minutes before the game started. After finding a parking spot in the nearby garage, I met T in front of the arena. She had just finished dinner with her family so it worked out perfect. She was out there for the weekend visiting family. A few of them joined us at the game…yet they didn’t sit with us. We had gotten our seats earlier. After the game we made the drive to London, OH where we’d be staying at her Grandmother’s house. I had thoughts of going to the Red Wings game the following night only if I could find a ticket. Nothing was available up to the day before the game so I was expecting to be in OH for the remainder of the trip. Saturday morning I decided to check TicketMaster to see if anything became available and little to my dismay, there were tickets available. So I bought a $20 ticket and got in the car and made the 3 ½ hr trek to Detroit. Tracey stayed back in OH with her fam. I even made it to Detroit with some time to spare. Rarely do I leave early, but for this one I had to leave about 15 minutes early. I had a 6 am flight out of Indy the next morning and it was also Day light savings so I thought I’d be losing an hour. Little did I know Indy does not change time so I didn’t lose the hour like I expected. I found this our after reaching the airport. I loaded up on caffeine and sugar to help me endure the 5 hr trip back to Indy. Barely able to stay awake, I pulled up to the rental car return around 2 am. I had made it just in time. They were just about to close up. They dropped me off at the airport where I laid on the floor until 4 am when the airport started to open up. I was so high on sugar I laid there in pain. By the time I made it over to the ticket counter to stand in line I was feeling pretty bad. Before I had a chance to pass out I laid down on the floor in hopes to prevent any attention to myself. It worked. : ) I wasn’t the only person who didn’t know about the time not changing….Frontiers employees were all an hour late. At this time I was thinking to myself….”what was I thinking??? I’m sooo tired” After a short delay we were aloud to board the plane. I was able to get a little sleep on the plane, but not much. I still felt queasy from all the sugar and lack of sleep but found a way to get some rest. I bet you’re all thinking what I was at this time…my journey is almost over and soon I’ll be home. Well, that didn’t happen. We ran into one obstacle on the flight home. DIA was closed. Ugh! Instead of landing in Denver, we were routed to lovely Scottsbluff, NE. Joy! To top off the delay, we couldn’t exit the plane because that airport wasn’t equipped to handle planes that big. So we were all stuck on the plane an extra hour. Though I was able to get a little extra sleep, I still didn’t feel all that great. Eventually we made it back to Denver and I was able to make it home. However, it was still a few more hours before I was able to get any sleep. Cyn had invited me to the Avs game that afternoon so soon after dropping my luggage off at home, I got back on the road and headed to the Pepsi Center. There was no way I was going to pass up on 3rd row tickets behind the Avs bench! To sum up my weekend, I made it to 3 final home games of the season in 3 days. Not bad, eh? :) Oh, and eventually I got some sleep.
Arena Notes: What can I say about the Joe? It’s one of the oldest arenas, but I guess that’s the only reason I liked it. Out of all the arenas, it had the most ‘Old Time Hockey’ feel to it. Lots of old player’s pictures were hung throughout the building. It was pretty cool seeing all the pictures of Howe, Abel, and so on. Now if only I would’ve felt safe. ;) Actually, once I got in the arena I wasn’t worried. It was just on the outside that I had eyes on the back of my head. The parking garage was pretty sketchy. Through the walkway from the garage to the arena, they had security personnel placed at every corner so they had a view of the entire walk. I was relieved they did that. They also placed security personnel in each bathroom. The Joe is the only arena that has either of those. Gotta love Detroit. Ha! I made sure I had a full tank of gas before going to that game. No way was I going to stop for directions in the ghetto. I’d keep driving until I found my way home. : ) Enough about the ghetto, as for my seats….they weren’t bad. I sat near the top between the corner and behind the net. It would’ve been a lot nicer if they didn’t have nets above the boards, but not much we can do about that. The majority of fans wore Wings jerseys. I did see a few Blue Jackets, but not many people were brave enough to sport one. One was in the section next to mine. The Wings fan rarely took time off from heckling him. But he did have the last laugh as Columbus won the game. As for me, I wore my red jacket. I wanted to blend in as much as possible so that I would make it out alive. ;) The Joe opened in 1979 and seats 20,058 hockey fans. I don't believe they have a mascot. Current retired numbers are 1 - Terry Sawchuk, 6 - Larry Aurie, 7 - Ted Lindsay, 9 - Gordie Howe, 10 - Alex Delvecchio, 12 - Sid Abel, 16 - Vladimir Konstantinov, and 99 - Wayne Gretzky.
Game Notes: Rick Nash made his final bid for the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy.
He broke a 1-1 tie with his league-leading 41st goal, Marc Denis made 32 saves and the Columbus Blue Jackets ended their season with 4-1 victory Saturday night over the Detroit Red Wings.
Nash, tied with Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk for the NHL lead, also had an assist. Trevor Letowski and Anders Eriksson joined Nash with a goal and assist apiece. David Vyborny got the other Columbus goal, and Tyler Wright had two assists.
The NHL's leading goal scorer each season receives the Richard trophy.
"It was great to see him score," Columbus coach Gerard Gallant said. "It would have been really nice on that breakaway (late in the game, when Nash was stopped by Detroit goaltender Manny Legace). He played a real good game and he didn't play a selfish game trying to score goals."
Nash entered the game tied for the goal-scoring lead with Kovalchuk and Calgary's Jarome Iginla. Kovalchuk scored in Atlanta's 2-1 victory over Tampa Bay. Calgary did not play.
Atlanta's season also is over. Playoff-bound Calgary finishes the regular season Sunday in Anaheim.
"I can't control it, which is kind of nice," said Nash, only 19 and in his second NHL season. "I did my job tonight, I got one. Kovalchuk did his job, he got one. Now it's in Iginla's hand to make the move. If he gets two, he deserves it."
Steve Thomas scored the only goal for Detroit, which finished the regular season with the NHL's highest point total (109). The Red Wings are assured of home-ice advantage throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs.
"You want to go in (to the playoffs) with a nice victory," said Detroit defenseman Mathieu Dandenault. "But it didn't happen that way. I don't think a team like this will put too much into it and just move on."
Nash broke the tie at 4:07 of the second period, beating Legace from the bottom of the right circle.
"To come out and beat the best team in the league at home the last game, we really leave on a good note," Nash said.
Letowski made it 3-1 when he put a shot over Legace from in close at 7:08. Vyborny added his goal with eight seconds remaining in the game.
Eriksson got a power-play goal for Columbus with 6:27 left in the first period, and Thomas tied it for Detroit just 50 seconds later.
"The value of it, I guess, wasn't a whole lot," Detroit coach Dave Lewis said. "But we got through it."
More Game notes: Red Wings' D Nicklas Lidstrom signed a two-year contract, according to general manager Ken Holland. Financial terms weren't announced ... Blue Jackets' D Rostislav Klesla missed the game because of a charley horse sustained Thursday night against Detroit in Columbus. Columbus also was without centers Alexander Svitov (ankle), Todd Marchant (groin) and Manny Malhotra (ankle). ... Neither Maltby nor Lidstrom was in the Detroit lineup. ... Dandenault returned after missing 15 games with a broken foot. ... Before the game, the Red Wings were presented with the Presidents' Trophy, which goes to the team with the NHL's best record.
(*Game Notes taken from espn.com*)
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